Dr. Friedlaender is not the first to misunderstand what is proposed.
Not many people (including RAFI until recently) understand the
workings of the World Court. He has probably read press reports which
said that RAFI intended to initiate World Court action against
individuals and/or the Institute of Medical Research in Goroka. RAFI
did not say this. I outline what we did say below. I said it by
telephone to Dr. Jenkins in Goroka; in person to government officials
and journalists in PNG and the Solomon Islands; and subsequently in
writing to Drs. Alpers and Jenkins at the Institute of Medical
Research, and in writing to the PNG government (with copies of each of
these letters to the other). What I said, and what RAFI continues to
say is this:
We believe (regardless of the motives of those involved) that the
legal and policy precedents being set by this patent; the trend it is
part of; a whole range of ethical and other considerations raised by
life patenting generally, and human patenting in particular - are
sufficiently important and far-reaching in their implications that
they should be considered by the International Court of Justice (or
World Court). We believe this is especially important now, because
the GATT and Biodiversity Convention - both of which are legally
binding - entrench life patenting, and have been or will be signed by
governments the world over. Such a review by the World Court can only
be initiated by government/s or multilateral agencies.
In most of the exchanges referred to above, I indicated that RAFI was
holding discussions with officials from a number of governments and
multilateral agencies, and with people at the World Court secretariat
- about the possibility of launching such an action.
Regarding the ownership of the newspaper which contacted RAFI, and ran
a story on this patent in PNG: our records indicate that RAFI staff
have done 77 interviews with media outlets in 1995 - including with
the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Times of London, The
Weekend Australian and Time Magazine. By granting interviews to
journalists, RAFI staff (like most people who talk to the press, we
presume) are not endorsing either their editorial policy, or the
ownership of the media houses they represent. And we certainly don't
control what they write! Jean Christie